Whitestone: Eleven at the Bartlett Gallery

• Wed May 11 - Sun Jun 05

Featuring Canadian and International art, including original works by some of Canada’s most exciting painters and multi-media artists, The Bartlett Gallery is the perfect place to seek out one-of-a-kind pieces of affordable art! From May 11th – June 5th the Bartlett Gallery will have the wonderful works of the Whitestone Eleven Collective on display. Join the talented artists at their opening reception on Saturday, May 14th from 2-4pm.

The Whitestone Eleven Collective is a group of professional artists: painting, sculpture, encaustic, glass and mixed media. Their work has been recognized widely for its quality and originality. The current members of the collective include: Barbara Bryce, Tom Dietrich, Deborah Dryden, Nancy Farrell, Mary Karavos, Larry Lawrence, Michelle Leblanc Lawrence, Norma Lee, Jean Loney, Grayce Perry and Noella Upitis.

Barbara Jean Bryce is not your typical stained glass artist. Her collages feature layers of broken antique bottles and glass combined with metal trinkets and odd earrings all spun out in a circle.

Painter and sculptor Tom Dietrich’s work explores how ideas can be expressed and concepts developed through art, encouraging the possibility of opening up to a broader dialogue with ourselves and the world we share.

The body of artist Deborah Dryden’s work is driven by the combination of color and texture. She explores a wide variety of art forms (printmaking, clay, watercolor, acrylic, glass mosaic) in order to translate her idea or image into a successful visual statement.

Nancy Farrell creates artworks in acrylic, mixed media and found materials. Her colorful, freewheeling abstracts and non-objective paintings are inspired by lines, shapes and colors found in landscapes.

Artist Mary Karavos’ art is very much influenced from her experience of life in Florence. The beautiful mosaics greatly inspired Mary’s individual style and technique. She has spent years developing her process. Only the finest Japanese and Nepalese papers are patiently layered piece by piece, layer upon layer to create her original paper art.

Dentist turned visual artist, Larry Lawrence’s exposure to his son-in-law’s farm inspired his choice to paint portraits of their barnyard friends. Each subject seems to take on its own personality!

Michelle LeBlanc Lawrence’s paintings reflect her interest in the interplay of color and light. Some paintings are completely non-objective whereas others have some degree of landscaped-inspired organization.

Artist Norma Lee’s inspiration comes from the beauty of nature and the simple things around her.  In a landscape, she believes every location has a sense of place. It is difficult to get that connection from a photograph alone - which is why she prefers to paint from life. “I feel there is a better opportunity of capturing the essence of a landscape if I am standing in front of the scene taking in the whole experience of the outdoors.”  

In her mosaics, Jean Loney uses concrete materials to express intangible elements of her life and history.  For instance, during her teaching years Jean had concentrated her artistic talents on creating a perennial garden in her century home. Digging in the dirt turned up shards of pottery, iron spikes, medicine bottles and an old porcelain doll face. These buried bits of history led to a fascination with underground strata, shown in her sea and earth-scapes.

Grayce Perri’s paintings are intuitive and the imagery in her abstracts is always playful, energetic and ambiguous - encouraging the viewer to find their own insights into the work. Perri’s goal is to capture the familiar essence of a common human experience, emotion or place.

Artist Noella Upitis’ work is an effort to reconnect to the beauty around us every day.  “We need to remember to take a walk in the stillness of a new snowfall in the woods. What is it like to hear silence on a winter walk?” She hopes to elicit those feelings and memories of peace in her work.

Join the Bartlett Gallery at the Alton Mill Arts Centre in celebrating the works of these incredible artists that make up the Whitestone Eleven Collective!